Kick In The Teeth
by Kyandi-Akatensei
Summary: "Whoever said death is easy and peaceful…is a liar!" Aluriana Arquette thought life couldn't get any worse than it already was. Then her life flipped upside down and landed her with five of the most unusual headaches and a new home. But this sarcastic spitfire isn't taking any more kicks in the teeth.
1. Death

_**Summary:**_ "Whoever said death is easy and peaceful…is a liar!" Aluriana Arquette thought life couldn't get any worse than it already was. Then her life flipped upside down and landed her with five of the most unusual headaches and a new home. But this sarcastic spitfire isn't taking any more kicks in the teeth.

Kyandi: Hello everyone! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Kyandi-sama! And this is my OC, Aluri.

Aluri: Hello and goodbye.

Kyandi: Straight to the point aren't you.

Aluri: Sure am.

Kyandi: Well then, fine. Now I know this kind of story has been done before but I liked the idea and decided to give it a try myself. So here it is.

Aluri: Enjoy and review.

Kyandi: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter 1

Whoever said death is easy and peaceful…is a liar! If anything its like getting kicked in the teeth. The pain fills the body as a whole, and reaches to every tip of every finger and toe. It continues to bounce through every pore and tissues, until it finally fades into an echo that leaves one feeling empty, dark, and completely and utterly, alone.

At least that was how fifteen year old, Aluriana Arquette felt about the whole affair. Of course she hadn't been expecting the sudden bullet to the throat that would black her world out. Her day had been as normal as as any else. Sucky, long, and painful. Everyday of life added another bruise to the growing list. A black eye, or maybe even a fist shaped bruise on her ribs. It was always the same. One fight after another.

But that was another matter entirely. The point was she had never saw the gun coming until it was too late. She couldn't even scream for it ripped through her slender throat. It was so quick that Aluri swore she could have gotten whip lash from it. Not that that was possible but it gave her mind something to think about as she floated on a dark cloud.

Aluri had never been overly religious by any standards but she had been raised Baptist. When she finally died she had expected for god to greet her at the pearly gates of heaven with a "Good job my good and faithful servant." Or a "I do not know thee. Be gone.". But it seemed God had different plans for her because neither happened. And no this was not her making fun of religion. Just what she had been taught. So far it had not happened.

Not that she cared. It was quiet on her little black cloud. Floating around and never seeing or hearing another soul. Not exactly peaceful, but quiet. Now if only the pain would finally fade to nothing. Then she would be just grand. But nothing ever went her way. It was like life loved to kick her when she was down. It certainly seemed like that was the case. Especially now, because from the center of her void, appeared a pin prick of light.

Aluri had never handle curiosity well. The whole, "Curiosity killed the cat" thing could certainly be applied to her. Some times she just couldn't contain her curious nature. Now was one of those times. She found herself swimming towards the pinprick. It felt like she was moving through syrup. All of her limbs felt heavy and weighted down. She was moving, she could tell by the slowly increasing size of the light, but it was slow going. When finally she did reach it, she was exhausted.

Funny thing, a dead girl feeling exhausted.

The light in question turned out to be a panel of light about her height and a little wider then she was. Aluri reached out to touch it, her fingers vanishing beyond the light into warm air. She yanked the hand back, wondering. Should she go through? Aluri knew she probably shouldn't but once again her curious nature got the best of her. Before her mind could talk her out of it, her body moved, stepping forward through the light.

Aluri suddenly felt like she was free falling. She couldn't even make a noise as air rushed up around her, whipping her hair and clothes up around her. All she could do was brace herself for the invetible impact she knew was sure to come. She could almost feel it in her bones. Sure enough, she landed. Pain flared anew in her, spreading to cover her whole back and seeping into her limbs before piercing her chest to fill it too. Silence rang in her ears. She felt like she had when she was five and had fallen backwards off the jungle gyms to land flat on her back. But that had been ten feet at the most. This hurt a lot more.

With the new wave of pain it was like the world crashed in on her again. Noise, feeling, smells, everything. It hit her so hard at first it was like someone had blared a speaker in her ears. It left them ringing. Or was that from the impact with the ground? She couldn't tell. All she knew was that when the ringing cleared and the sheer noise faded, she could hear bird song and the sound of wind in the trees. Noise that had always calmed her as a child. It did so now, allowing her to relax her sore muscles.

She could smell wildflowers, the smell of maple trees, the clean open air. She could feel grass, long and thick under her arms and hands. It all relaxed her.

Then she heard it.

The thud, thud, thud of hurried footsteps vibrated the ground. Several sets of them. Her muscles, with a scream of protest, tightened once more. Then the voices reached her ears too. "It's a girl!" came one. It was a male, light and soft, and clearly shocked. "But where did she come from? There are no trees here and nothing flying by in the air." came another male voice, this one more logical and deeper. Then Aluri felt them, one on each side of her, knelling down. "Is she alive?" the first voice asked, concern fillilng his soft voice. Aluri wanted to yell, no! But she couldn't get her voice to work.

Then she felt the first touch. Strong fingers just over the pulse of her neck. "The heart beat is slow, but there." replied the second voice but Aluri didn't hear it for the moment he touched her neck, burning pain erupted. It was then she heart the gasp. "Look! Is that a bullet wound?" asked the first voice. The next touch was softer, gentler…and still hurt like hell. It was a kind of touch Aluri wasn't use to, though. He touched right at the center of her throat where Aluri was sure she had been shot.

"It is. But is half healed already." The second voice replied. "How could she have survived that?" the first asked. She didn't hear a reply and she assumed it had been a nonverbal reply. Then those strong fingers who had checked her pulse, started skimming over her body, poking and prodding, trying to get a grasp on the extent of her injuries. Aluri tried not to scream, but his fingers hit every possible sore spot, until she couldn't hold the cry of pain back. A small, choked cry, hoarse in sound and pitiful even to her own ears, left her lips.

The fingers stilled then. "She's conscious!?" exclaimed the first voice in surprise. Gentle hands came to her face then. "Miss? Are you awake? Can you hear me? If you can I need you to open your eyes." the voice insisted. Could she open them? Hell yeah she could! Aluri had never been weak before. Besides….these voices were starting to ring a very familiar tone in her head. Like she knew them but couldn't place from where she knew them.

She was going to open her eyes just so she could see who these familiar strangers were. Because who her mind told her they were, couldn't possibly be right.

It took effort, she wouldn't lie, but finally she got her eyes to open.

Bright sunlight hit her straight in the eyes, blinding her all over again. Something moved to block it but her sight was still blurred. She could make out two males, about her age. One was blonde, the other brunette. At first that was all she could tell as her eyes adjusted to the light. The blonde let out a happy exclamation. He turned out to be the first speaker, the one with the gentler voice and touch. That meant the brunette was the one with the strong touch.

Aluri's eyes left the blonde, who was talking once more, and landed on the brunette instead. She didn't hear a word the blonde said, the words hitting deaf ears. Instead her eyes grew wide as her vision cleared enough for her to see the face of the brunette.

Her eyes met the vivid green ones looking down at her and panic filled Aluri. She knew that face, those eyes. She could see her own panicked, almost fearful expression mirrored in his eyes as he stared at her. It couldn't possibly be!

"T…Trowa."

Her voice was a barely croaked whisper but he heard it and his eyes narrowed in questioning and confusion. But Aluri couldn't answer. The over whelming emotions and pain of the day took its toll and Aluri's world went black once more. But there was no way, right?

No way that that could have really been Trowa Barton! He was a cartoon character from her childhood…right?

END

Kyandi: It's not a very long first chapter but the others will be longer, promise.

Aluri: Now she just has to type them.

Kyandi: Yeah…that will take forever.

Aluri: Then get to work.

Kyandi: Will do. So everyone enjoy and review.

Aluri: We'll be back as soon as possible.

Kyandi: Bye, bye!


	2. The Impossible Girl

Kyandi: Good morning everyone!

Aluri: Its afternoon.

Kyandi: Whatever~! We're back!

Aluri: With a new chapter for you too.

Kyandi: Yeah, sorry it took so long.

Aluri: She was updating other stories.

Kyandi: I have a lot of them.

Aluri: That you do, so move on.

Kyandi: Right! Eveyone please enjoy and review!

Aluri: Kyandi-sama does not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter 2 The Impossible Girl

Hit by a bus.

That was what Aluri felt like the next time she came around. Her whole body ached, from the top of her head to the tip of her toe. So yes...it felt like she had been hit by a bus. Head on at that.

She was laying on her back still and the noises around her, thankfully, didn't hit her as hard as they had last time. There wasn't much for her to hear anyway. Just a soft, steady beeping off to her left.

The smells though were interesting. She could smell some sort of strong cleaner, the sharp, crips smell of something clean, and under it all, the metallic smell of blood.

Hospital, definitely a hospital. That was what popped into her mind. She had been in enough hospitals to know the smell of one.

But that was soon forgotten as everything rushed back to her, and she finally noticed that her arms and legs were restrained. The beeping increased dramatically as her heart beat sky rocketed. If there was one thing in the world that could get her heart rate and blood pressure to stroke level in the matter of seconds it was being tied down.

Aluri struggled then, hearing the clink of tubes and IVs knocking together as she fought to pull herself free. She didn't open her eyes, because she knew what she'd find. A perfectly blank, white wash room with nothing but a bed and machines. The door would probably be locked too.

Her heart rate shot up once again, the beeps now going crazy as she thrashed. She almost had one hand free when she heard the "swoosh" noise of an electronic door opening. Then there were hurried footsteps. Someone grabbed her arm she had almost ripped free, and forced it down, tightening the restrait on it. Aluri wanted to claw their eyes out. Just swing and keep swinging. Strike first, ask questions later.

Then she heard the soft voice and felt equally soft hands on her face.

"It's alright! Just calm down!" he told her softly.

If anything Aluri twisted even more. There was no way in hell she was going to calm down! They had her tied down! To her that was more then reason enough to keep struggling as long as she could. She might have been calm if she wasn't tied down.

"Trowa! Quickly!"

Aluri heard the clinking of her IVs again and knew what was coming before she felt the soothing, warmth sweep through her body, calming her nerves, and relaxing her muscles. Her heart rate decreased and slowly she fell still and limp until she lay, sleepy and placid on the bed.

"There we go. Just breathe."

Aluri pried her eyes open then to look up at the boy leaning over her. Just when she had hoped it had all been some strange, impossible dream, she found herself confronted with the smiling face of Quatre R. Winner. That meant she had really seen Trowa...and that the others were near by too.

Aluri could feel the bone deep shiver shake her body. Quatre mistook the shiver to mean something else. He gestured for someone to hand him a blanket, but never took his eyes from hers.

A blanket was handed to him and he spread it over her, careful of the monitors and tubes. Aluri hadn't noticed how cold she was until that blissful warmth settled over her.

"There. Better now?" Quatre asked. As a reply, Aluri groaned, the noise clipped and hoarse, before banging her head back, finding she wasn't on a bed but a metal table. This action alarmed Quarte but Aluri was already slipping away into a drug induced sleep.

The last cohertant thought she had was..."God hates me".

-0-0-0-0-

Quarte watched as the girl's eyes slipped close again, the drugs lulling her back to sleep. He honestly didn't know what to think. One minute she was struggling, basically freaking out and then she banged her head back against the table. Of course he worried.

"Watch her please. I'll be back with a pillow to keep her from doing that agian." Quarte told Trowa before rushing from the room.

Trowa hadn't said a word and had stayed back except to hand Quatre the blanket. He couldn't get past the look of pure panic and almost fear she had had when she had looked at him and said his name. Most people who knew him didn't have that look of panic.

Trowa pushed the thought from his head and turned to look at her. She really was an impossible girl. Even laying on the table, limbs restrained, and swathed in a cotton, white blanket, she was beautiful yet looked like utter crap.

Her features were high, sloping planes with a small, straight nose, full pink lips, a slightly stubborn chin, and a dimple in each cheek that probably stood out when she smiled. Her skin was a sun tanned ivory, her body lean and full figured. She was a few inches shorted then Quatre, putting her head and shoulders shorter then Trowa himself.

Her coloring was excotic. Her long, wavy mass of hair was a pale strawberry blonde that was more blond then strawberry. It was so pale in color that in certain light it could pass for white with hints of vermillion red. And it was so long it spilled over the edge of the table, falling to almost hit the floor. Standing, Trowa was sure the hair would fall to her thighs. Her thin, arched brows and long curling lashes, were the same paleness of her hair. It was beautiful on her, but it was her eyes that stunned him.

When she had first opened them the sheer paleness of the color made him think there was no color to them at all. Then he had looked again. The eyes that had looked at him with panic, were a pale silver-grey color that almost had no color. Add to it the scars and fresh injuries that they had found littered about her skin and the healing bullet wound on her slender throat and the girl was like nothing else he had ever seen. The sheer mass of injuries was over whelming at that.

He could almost believe she was a dream the way she fell out of the sky, but here she was laying before him. There were so many questions in his head, of course, and when he and Quatre had called the others, knowing this was urgent, they had had the same questions.

Who was she? Where did she come from? How had she known Trowa? So many questions and no answers. At the moment, the other three pilots were on their way to the base where Quatre and Trowa were now bunked along with the Doctors who had been monitoring the girl, whose recovery was coming along, despite the five times she had started thrashing in her sleep and trying to rip out the IVs and tubes hooked up to her.

It was that reason alone that they had restrained her. She appeared too under fed and abused to cause much trouble otherwise. Trowa doubt she could muster up the strength to fight any of them. They just didn't need her to possbily cause more harm to herself.

The door opened then, admitting Quatre, pillow in hand. Behind him came Duo, who had been the first to leave when he received their call and thus the first to arrive.

"So this is her?" Duo asked peering down at the girl, his hands jammed into the pockets of his pants.

"Who is she?" he asked.

Quatre carefully lift the girl's head, cradling it in one arm while he slipped the pillow under it. He was careful not to jolt her neck which still seemed to hurt her greatly when touched or moved too much.

"No idea. I used a DNA sample to search but nothing came up. Not anywhere. No one even fitting her description." Quatre replied.

All three boys looked down at the sleeping girl. The door opened again and Heero stepped in, Wufie hovering behind him at the door. The latter seemed furious while Heero was blank as always.

"You called us here because of a _**woman**_!?" Wufie snapped when he looked down at the girl.

"Like we said, she knew Trowa on sight, and he's sure he has never seen her before. And I can't find her anywhere in any database. Not even in restricted files. Its like she's never existed." Quatre replied.

"And everyone gets entered into a database of some kind at some point. Even the five of us." he added.

All five turned a look on the girl. If that was true...then how come they could find her in any database? The girl would of had to be a ghost to escape that.

"What's wrong with her neck?" Duo asked leaning in to look at the bandages around her neck.

"A gun shot wound to the throat." Trowa replied.

"Should have taken out her wind pipe as well as her vocal cords, but she's had no problems with either." he added.

"Wh-what!?" Duo stuttered looking up from where he had started to reach out to touch the girl's neck.

Duo looked down at his hand, the fingers of which were just a few inches away from the bandage wrapped neck of the girl. He instantly drew his hand back. Trowa now had Heero's and Wufie's full attention too.

"How could she survive that!?" Duo asked.

"It was already half healed when she...dropped in on us." Quatre replied.

"Best we can guess is it must have been from a distance and was a clean through-and-through that missed all vital parts." Trowa told them.

"But that wasn't all. She's covered in old and new bruises, scars, and cuts with a couple of recently healed ribs, a cracked cheek bone, and a recently healed broken collar bone...someone beat her, bad." Quatre added.

"Typical woman...weak." Wufie remarked, though he couldn't tell if he was more angry at the girl for being weak and getting beaten, or at the man who was low enough to raise his hand to a woman.

"She has defensive wounds too. Her knuckles are bruised, the skin split open. She fought back." Trowa remarked.

Duo untucked one of the girl's hands from under the blanket, careful of the restraint tied around the wrist, and peeled back the bandages over her knuckles. Sure enough, the knuckles of her long, thin fingers were bruised and scraped, the skin over a couple even split open. She had fought back and had hit hard. Duo righted the bandages and put the blanket back in place, tucking it around her hand.

"How does she know you?" Heero asked Trowa.

"Don't know." Trowa replied.

"We had to keep her restrained and sedated. She struggles and tires to rip out the IVs else wise." Quatre said.

"Mostly in her sleep. Its like she has horrible nightmares she's trying to escape from. But when she wakes, her heart rate and blood pressure rising and fast." he added.

As if on cue, the girl twitched, fingers flexing into fist like she was preparing for a fight. It was just small twitches at first, and then she jerked to one side, pulling against the restraints. The leather bonds creaked as she heaved with all her strength, but held. Quatre leaned on the girl, keeping her chest down, until her struggling slowed and the ceased.

"She'll wake up soon. Her metablolism burns through the drugs quickly." Trowa remarked.

"Then lets move her. It will be easier to talk to her if she is upright." Wufie remarked.

END

Kyandi: I really need to work on longer chapters.

Aluri: Then do it instead of talking about it.

Kyandi: I'll do that.

Aluri: Until then lets move on.

Kyandi: Right! Also for those of you who don't read my story Flip Side, I have decided that I am going to make a Q&A on youtube. If you have any questions about any of my OCs at all then leave the question in my reviews or pm me the question and I will answer them all in the Q&A.

Aluri: This is also a Q&A where you can ask questions about Kyandi-sama herself.

Kyandi: You could leave that part out.

Aluri: Wouldn't be fair if I did.

Kyandi: Yeah, sure. Anyway, please enjoy and review, everyone.

Aluri: We'll be back soon!

Kyandi: Bye, bye!


	3. Memories, Oh How I Hate Thee

Kyandi: We're back!

Aluri: She's had so much of this already written that she's just been typing it all up.

Kyandi: Your point.

Aluri: You have no social life.

Kyandi: Pfft! Whatever!

Aluri: Well you don't.

Kyandi: Yeah, yeah. Anyway, everyone please enjoy and review

Aluri: Especially review. We'll stop posting chapters unless we get reviews.

Kyandi: What she means is that we don't know if you all like it if you don't review. So please review!

Aluri: Kyandi-sama does not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter 3 Memories, Oh How I Hate Thee

Aluri wasn't a scream-your-frustrations kind of girl. That being said, when she next woke up, she was sorely tempted to do just that.

Aluri awoke in a sitting position, her chin on her chest and her bruised ribs protesting the position. The chair was cold steel bolted to the floor and leather restraints held her arms to the arm rest and her ankles to the legs of the chair. She didn't move at first and kept her breathing deep and even in hopes to keep her heart rate down.

Truth be told she wanted to just scream. Scream and keep screaming. She wanted to go into one of those crazy, frustrated fits where she just screamed and cried, and pound her fist. She couldn't do any of those. Logically speaking, she needed to remain calm and think this all through. Use the brain she had been given before it collected cobwebs.

That in mind, she tested the restraints but couldn't budge a single limb. They had ensured that she couldn't get free. That made the whole situation even more frustrating. She could handle it all perfectly well if she had use of her hands and legs. What girl didn't want to freak out waking up to being tied down? She **was** only human after all.

She could feel panic starting to set in and had to stop for a moment to calm herself. She didn't need her blood pressure sky rocketing to stroke levels. She had managed, somehow, to survive a gunshot to the throat. She didn't want to just turn around and die of a stroke or heart attack. That would just be pitiful.

When she was sure she wouldn't panic and start freaking out, she carefully tested the restraints once more looking for any weak spots that she could use to wiggle free somehow, still not lifting her head from the position it had been in when she woke. If they were watching her, she didn't want to give away that she was awake. Not just yet.

She fell still when a pair of legs, clad in black pants, appeared in her line of sight. If she really was where she thought she was, this was one of five people. Since she wasn't looking at bare legs, that excluded Heero who usually always wore shorts. Since it wasn't brown or white pants, that also excluded Trowa and Quatre who usually wore pants in those colors. Lastly, she was looking at boots instead of slipper like shoes. That meant the person standing in front of her was none other then Duo Maxwell.

His hand appeared in her line of vision, reaching for her neck. Aluri reacted purely on instinct and without thinking doing the first thing that popped into her head. She snapped her head to the side, at the protest of her neck, and clamped her teeth down on his hand.

"Damn it!" Duo hissed, yanking his hand back.

Aluri let him pull back, looking up at him through a screen of hair. The boy shook his hand, blood dotting his skin from where her teeth had broken the skin. A string of curses left his mouth. It was wasn't the amount of damage she usually dealt, but Aluri was pleased none the less with her work. It woud teach him not to touch her again.

The door behind Duo opened then, and Aluri's stomach bottomed out. There stood Wufei and Heero, the two most trigger happy of the group. Well...Wufei was blade happy, but that was beside the point. He was also the one that disliked women the most. The point was, they were both dangerous to her if she didn't play her cards right.

After looking at the still cursing Duo, both turned their eyes on her. Aluri, head still ducked, met their gazes evenly, keeping her face and eyes blank. To them she was just as blank as Heero and Trowa, but in truth...Aluri was terrified!

Not of them though, but of the thought she might have actually died and ended up in a cartoon! It was an impossible concept and yet there she sat and it terrified her. Of course she would not let them see it. That wouldn't get her anywhere.

She had learned over the years to never let anyone see what was inside. Not fear, nor pain, nor sadness. If she did, the world would tear her apart. This at least, was second nature. So she didn't let them see her fear or the fact that she was close to freaking out. This really couldn't be happening...could it? She could see them, could hear them, could taste Duo's blood on her tongue. This had to be real, but how?

"She bit me!" Duo exclaimed, pointing at Aluri as Quatre and Trowa appeared in the door way.

Quatre took a hold of Duo's hand and looked at the perfect ring of teeth marks on either side of the base of his thumb. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wrapping it around the bleeding wounds for Duo.

"She bit pretty hard." Quatre said.

"I was just trying to check her pulse! She had started twitching again. I didn't know she was awake!" Duo insisted, looking at the teeth marks.

"Apparently she didn't want you to touch her." Trowa remarked.

Aluri couldn't help the mental "Thank you!" she screamed in her head. She didn't think her throat could take her actually screaming it out loud. It hurt already. But finally, someone who understood that! No tied up girl wanted to be touched by one of the guys that had put her in that position.

Aluri sat bolt up straight, leaning as far back as possible, when Heero stepped forward to look at her more closely. The two met each other's gaze but it was apparent she didn't trust him one bit and he didn't know if she was a threat or not. Aluri strained her neck, with much protesting from the area and a lot of pain, to look up at him. It hurt like hell. Especially right where the bullet had sliced through her throat but she wouldn't look away from him. If her legs had been free, she would have kicked Heero just to make him back up. Instead she just kept her eyes on him, blowing strand of her hair out of her face.

"Can she speak?" Heero asked, his question not directed at Aluri but Quatre and Trowa.

All five boys watched as a purely reproachful look enter her face and her eyes narrowed. It was almost as if she was asking, "What, do you think I'm stupid!?". She obviously was not happy with the mere suggestion that she was too stupid to speak. Her fingers flexed, the knuckles cracking and even popping as they did. She had obviously tested the restraints and knew they would hold her.

"If she can speak then, for her own safety, she'll answer our questions and quick. Do you hear me, woman?" Wufei said.

One pale eyebrow shot up and she tilted her head to the side as she looked past Heero to look at Wufei. The expression so clearly said, "Or what?", that Trowa almost smiled. That one look had a world of sass in it.

Wufei took up a position in front of her, arms crossed as he looked down at her. The girl looked up at him, raising one eyebrow in questioning. Apparently she wasn't intimidated at all by the boy.

"Who are you, woman?" he asked.

His reply?

She turned one of her hands over, twisting the wrist in the restraint, and held up three fingers, the thumb and pinkie folded in. The gesture was simple...she was telling him to read between the lines. Basically...she had flipped him off in an off-hand kind of way. She wasn't out right flipping him off but it was close enough to anger the Chinese boy.

"You can tell us or we'll force it out of you." Wufei said, giving her one final chance.

This time, in reply, she stuck her tongue out at him. It was an immature gesture, but it was effective in pushing the last button with Wufei, who turned and stormed out of the room. Probably to go speak to the Doctors about how to get her talking.

"You're just making this worse on yourself." Duo told her.

The boys watched as she rolled her head side to side, her neck popping as it rolled from side to side before she let her head roll back so she could look down her nose at him with a down right icy look. That one look said it all. Come hell or high water, she wouldn't back down. She would hold her ground no matter what.

They would see how long that lasted.

-0-0-0-0-

Aluri would not blink!

Not first at least. Across the room from her, sitting backwards in a chair, leaning on the backrest and staring at her, was Duo. The two, without saying a word, had entered a staring contest. Aluri had a knack for staring at something for extended periods of time without blinking. it was a bit of a useless talent in her opinion especially since she got it from staring at a TV screen a lot, but at the moment it came in handy. After angering Wufei, an act she knew she shouldn't have done, all of the others, save Duo, had left the room. Duo had pulled up a chair and was watching her closely. She didn't know why but he had. It wasn't like she could get out of the restraints.

Aluri tilted her head to the side, the corners of her mouth starting to tip up when she saw the tell tale twitching of Duo's eyes that showed her that he was close to blinking. It was a silly thing to do, having a staring contest, but it kept her mind from wondering. And she really didn't want to think about how she got here or what happened before that. Especially not about what happened before.

She didn't feel any of her injuries at the moment thanks to something Quatre had given her through an IV still stuck in her arm. Despite that she knew her body would ache if she thought about what had happened before awaking in this world. It was a traitor like that. If is liked something it didn't care what she thought about the situation. So the staring contest kept her focused on Duo instead of anything else.

The twitching of his left eye increased until finally, with a noise of annoyance, he blinked and rubbed at his eyes. Aluri was about to let out a very loud and unsportsman like "Ha!" when the door slid open to allow Heero entry. Behind him came two of the five Doctors, Doctor J and Professor G, wheeling some kind of monitor-like machine between them.

Aluri's back went rim-rod straight at the sight of it. Especially when they stopped it right beside her and she could see the little tabs they would soon be attaching to her. Behind them came Quatre and Trowa. No Wufei in sight.

"Now, dear, let us start." Doctor J said.

Aluri didn't look at him for her eyes were locked on the machine. She was in deep trouble and she knew it. Whatever that machine was, it wasn't going to equal good for her.

-0-0-0-0-

Her eyes instantly went to the machine and didn't move from it. The four pilots present could have sworn fear flashed through the girl's pale eyes and then an even stronger flash of unease, but then both were shoved behind an iron wall almost as soon as it appeared.

What came next, they could only discribe as pure fury.

Those naturally wide eyes, narrowed and her small nose wrinkled. Long nails dug into the arms of the chair and her back pressed back against the backrest. Her chin lowered so she was looking at them through her pale lashes, her eyes blazing.

To Trowa she looked like a wild animal that had been cornered. If she was anything like those animal then she could be dangerous to approach. Quatre saw it as well and stepped forward, his hands raised in a gesture of peace.

"Its alright. Its just a monitor of sorts. Its so you don't have to speak and strain your throat." he told her.

Those pale grey eyes turn to him. The others were surprise to see the girl respond well to Quatre, like she knew he, at least, wouldn't hurt her. She visibly relaxed as she met his eyes. Happy with the positive response, Quatre continued to talk to her.

"They are only going to put tabs on your head, neck, and face. They will be careful of your neck wound. Its a scanner." Quatre explained, the girl's gaze shooting to the machine and the Doctors before returning to the blond boy in front of her.

"It will allow us to see into your memories and to see what happened before Trowa and I found you." Quatre added.

With this last comment all progress Quatre had made vanished. She regressed quickly and all attempts at hiding her feelings, temporarily flew out the none existent window.

The girl's eyes flew open wide, panic filling their silver-grey depths before her entire posture shut down. The eyes narrowed and her nose wrinkled once more, her shoulders hunched, and her fingers tigthened on the armrest to the point everyone in the room could hear the cracking of her knuckles. It was clear she did not want them to pick through her memories.

"It's alright! This is the only way to absolutely prove that you are no danger to us." Quatre reassured her.

The Doctors approached her then. In the end Quatre had to hold her head still, while the monitor tabs were attached to her. The whole time, Doctor J explained the machine farther to the girl, first showing her the tabs. The tabs had ultra thin needles on them.

"The needles on these tabs will peirce your skin and when the scanner is turned on you will feel small, sharp pricks as the needle peirce through your skull to your cerebral cortex where your long term and short term memories are stored. They will then release a chemical that will force your brain to reply all vivid memories you have stored. Oh do not fret, dear, there will be no damage done to your brain or the way it functions and the needles will leave behind no other damage." Doctor J said, adding the last part when her eyes widened again.

A few times she winced as the needles pierced her skin. She tried a few times to pull away but Quatre's gentle hold was firm enough to keep her head still. Finally the tabs were in place and the scanner and the monitor for her vitals were turned on. The girl jolted slightly when the needles did just as Doctor J said they would.

"You will experience a mild headache and a possible fever afterward, my dear, but nothing life threatening I assure you. Now this scanner will, however, show us all of your strongest memories. That means I can not control how far back into your memory it will go." Doctor J explained to the girl.

Her only reply to this was a dirty look. The idea obvious didn't sit right with her. But she would have to deal with it since she had been the one who was too stubborn to tell them anything. So yes, it was partly her fault.

"And another side effect of this method is that, unfortunently it will also force you to relive the memories. Meaning you will feel, smell, hear, taste, and see everything you did in the memories." he added.

Fear and panic entered her eyes this much.

"It is unavoidable though." he added.

The girl wasn't listening though. She had turned her attention instead to trying to shake the tabs free but none budged from their spots and all it did was hurt her neck.

"There we go. Now let us step next door." Professor G said leading the way out of the room.

Next door five large screens would allow them to watch the memories as the scanner unearthed them. A sixth monitor would display her vitals and a large one-way mirror allowed them to watch the girl as she was forced to relive the memories. Wufei waited there with the other three Doctors.

"It will start with the earliest memories it can find." Professor G said.

Quatre looked at the window watching the girl who was shifting the chair as much as the restraints would allow her.

"This is feels wrong." he remarked lowly.

"But its the only way. Even if she speaks, it might not be true." Duo remarked.

Quatre fell silent. She would know how far back the scanner reached and he was sure...she wasn't going to be too awfully happy with it.

"There, here it comes."

All five pilots looked up at the screens. The first few memories were from the few of an infant and featured a beautiful, young woman. She resembled the girl too much to be anything other then her mother. Her thick, long, cork screws curls were a deep choppery red and her kind and gentle eyes were a vibrant green, a shade or two darker then Trowa's own. She held the child with care, rocking her as she spoke. She was beautiful with a warm smile on her face, but was ill looking with dark circles under her eyes, pale skin, and the beginnings of a hallowness to her cheeks.

"_Hello, my little Sutha talun_." she cooed to the baby.

"What is that?" Duo asked.

"Irish for "strawberry"." Doctor J replied idly.

"_How is mama's little girl today?_" the woman added confirming that she was indeed their Jane Doe's mother.

"They look so much alike she could only be her mother." Trowa remarked.

"She's beautiful though." Quatre replied.

The next few years flashed by on the screens, the five different screens showing multiple memories at once all so clear they could have been part of a movie.

In most of the memories is showed a tall, handsome man watching from the background. He was indeed a handsome man with strong features, pale blonde hair sleeked back from his face, and cold grey eyes the exact same shade as those of the girl Trowa and Quatre had found. The memories showed the man with her mother, but he would never approach the child, always going out of his way to avoid her or to glare at her until she retreated herself.

"She has a fabulous memory." Doctor J said. "So clear and so far back. Most don't remember infancy. Not even as a stored memory they can not conjur."

The girl in the next room had, by this point, leaned her head back as the memories washed over her. As the years progressed in the memories though the woman seemed to get more and more ill until a memory from when the girl was six showed her attending a funeral for her mother.

In that memory she stood beside the tall, handsome man with pale blonde hair who had stalked mother and daughter in previous memories. In the funeral memory, as they walked away from the grave, the girl reached up to the man's sleeve and tugged. The voice that spoke was tiny, laddened with a faint accent that was a perfect blend of French and Irish. It was a soft, but rich sound.

"_Daddy_," it said as the girl tugged. "_What happened to Mama_?"

The man, who could only be her father, looked down at the child, eyes so cold and cruel it amazed those watching that the child didn't flinch away or remove her hand.

"_She's gone. __**You**__ killed her_."

"That's a horrible thing to say to a child." Quatre remarked.

In the next room, the girl seemed to agree as she flinched, shifting in the chair as her nose wrinkled up. Her eyes had closed during the memories of her mother and were now squeezed shut as if she was in pain. The memories moved on and the girl started twitching, straining against the restraits, knowing full well what was coming next and apparently not liking it.

"Her heart beat and blood pressure are raising." Heero remarked.

Despite that, the next couple of memories were pretty harmless, showing her as she played in a large backyard with no moblie suits in the air, watching the news as it showed the chaos of the world, showing events that had never in the history of their world, happened.

"What's going on? The lack of mobile suits, news cast on events that have never happened, and if I'm right, I just saw the date on the news red October fourteenth of the year two thousand." Duo remarked.

No one had an answer to this question though. Then they saw it. The girl was still about six at the time and was watching a new cartoon on her TV. The pilots stared in shock at seeing their own faces on the screen. Day in and day out the girl watched the show, watching their missions and making comments now and then. "_I wonder if Daddy would let me take arobatics_." was one comment and "_I play the piano too_!" was another. All pretty harmless comments.

As shocked as they were about this discovery, it was the memories from then on that had them falling into silence. The girl struggled in her restraints trying to stop the flow of memories but they came anyhow. Every last bloody and cruel one. It seemed at the first anniversity of his wife's death, her father started taking it out on his daughter.

The first couple of years it wasn't much. A hit here, a shove there, and a lot of screaming and insulting. Then at about ten, he completely snapped. The pilots watched, some in horror, as the man beat his daughter within an inch of her life and with no mercy or remorse. At first she tried to run and got a beating even worse for it. As time past, she learned not to turn her back and fought back. But never, not even once, did she beg. She never begged, she never cried...she never asked her father "why".

She took the beating and at the hospital, lied for her father.

One time the man broke his eleven year old daughter's arm by slamming her into a book shelf. Another he gave his twevle year old daughter a concussion by throwing a chair at her. There were several injuries, several trips to the hospital, but the worse was at fourteen when he threw her out a second story window. Thankfully the girl landed among some thick bushes and was spared her life if nothing else.

When she returned from the hospital after that, thought, he shoved her into a glass table, shattering it. In retaliation, she broke his nose and blackened both his eyes. Each time she gave the hospital a new lie and stuck to it, her father agreeing with whatever ridiculous story his daughter had come up with. The police was never called.

Trowa glanced at the girl through the mirror. She was gripping the arms so tight her knuckles had gone white. Her eyes were still squeezed shut and she had tried to curl in on herself though the restraints wouldn't let her. Her heart beat would rise and fall with each new memory, her blood pressure inching closer and closer to stroke level.

She was feeling all of the pain all over again. He turned his attention back to the monitors as they reached a point just before he and Quatre had found her. It was another fight with her father and Trowa and Quatre were both starting to get a bad feeling.

In this memory the girl was holding her own pretty well and even threw a vase at him before kicking him in the pelvic bone hard enough that she heard a crack. But despite that he seemed dead set on hurting her. His boots found her ribs, her back hit shelves and walls, and his fist blackened her skin. He didn't stop until she hit her back on the floor and was in too much pain to get back up.

Through the whole beating he had yelled things at her, raining his fist down on her. "_You're worthless_!" and "_You monster child_!", and "_Murderous leech_!" and the one that really spiked her heart rate, "_You killed my wife_!".

His face was twisted in fury and pain as he hurt her, no sign of a father's love in those cold grey eyes so much like the ones his own daughter had. When finally she lay unmoving on the floor, he pulled a small silver pistol, putting it to her throat, the girl focusing on his face. The next few seconds sent chills through most of those watching.

"_**I wish you had never been born**_!" followed by a ringing gun shot.

Then all the screens went black.

In the next room the girl jerked forward in the chair to hang from the restraints just as the gun fired. Almost as if she had been shot all over again. Then her heart flat lined, her head hanging forward and her breathing stopping altogether.

"Her heart stopped!" Quatre exclaimed in concern, but before he could reach the door, a light appeared on the screen.

It grew until she plunged head first into it. Then the sounds came of bird song and wind in tree branches. Then Quatre's voice, followed by Trowa's sounded.

A beep on the monitor singalled the restart of the girl's heart just as she took a gasping breath, her body shaking all over. She remained hanging forward against the restraints, gasping in a few more breaths, the shaking never ceasing.

The Doctors shut off the scanner then having reached the present.

"He...killed her. And yet, she here." Duo remarked into the stunned silence.

"You will probably need her side of the story to make sense of this. Though we saw her memories, we don't know her thoughts, her feelings, or what she knows." Doctor J said.

The boys looked at each other. Already Quatre was out the door heading next door to the girl. The others followed. When they stepped into the room, the girl still hadn't moved, but she was breahing. Quatre took a step towards her and that was when they heard it. Though it was more mature, softer in a way, and hoarse from the abuse on her throat, it was the same slight accented voice that had come from her younger self in the memories.

And she didn't sound happy.

"I so dearly hope you got what you needed."

With that she eased herself back, moving slowly as if her whole body hurt to move. She leaned back against the backrest and sank into the chair. She looked exhausted, her face pale and sweat drying on her skin. She still had a death grip on the armrest but her eyes and face were, once again, blank.

"So you can speak." Wufei said dryly. The look that was shot his way was a tired, annoyed once. She was clearly in no mood for him.

"No these are rooster noises coming out of my mouth." she replied only managing to anger Wufei.

"Thank you so much for making me live through my death a second time. As if the first time wasn't enjoyable enough." she said, trying for "sarcasm" but her tone was too tired and worn thin to accomplish much more then "weary".

Though clearly shaken and annoyed, there was no anger in her. Not at them and not at her father. She was simply tired and annoyed.

"You want to explain this to us now?" Duo asked.

"Not much to explain. You saw my memories. I'm not from here, and where I come from, you are a cartoon. Well...technically it was an anime, but that is beside the point. The rest I'm not about to go into." she replied.

"How did you get here?" Heero asked.

The girl heaved a weary sigh, sinking as far into the chair as the restraints would let her.

"That is beyond my feild of comprehension, I'm afraid. God, some other higher power, a scientific anomaly, magic...take your pick, because at this point, your guess is as good as mine." she replied.

She shifted again, wincing as one of the tabs at the base of her skull was pulled.

"Here." Quatre stepped forward, removing the tabs for her. She kept one eye on him until he stepped back after removing them. She watched him until he stepped out of reach of her.

All of them were curious to ask one question but after seeing the memories, none did. She apparently saw it on their faces, though.

"Instead of dancing around the subject, just ask the question. Not much I can do to you like this. Not that it should worry you." she remarked.

"Not much...! You bit me!" Duo exclaimed.

"And you don't exactly taste like fine chocolate you know. Perhaps next time you won't try to suddenly touch a girl who has just awakened to find herself restrained in a place she doesn't know. You're lucky I didn't take off a finger." she replied. Duo huffed, crossing his arms.

"I believe we all have two questions in our heads at this moment." Quatre said then.

"Ask away. You will whether I want you to or not." she said.

"For one...what exactly do you know if, as you say, we are a cartoon where you come from?" Quatre asked.

"That depends on what point in the time line I have landed. Though I probably know more then you would like me to know and even more then you, at this present moment, know." she replied.

For a moment she fell quiet as if running something through her mind.

"Heero has self destructed his gundam right? I'm taking this guess since the five of you seem to know each other now."she asked. A look passed through all five boys.

"Yes." Heero replied.

"Then I believe I have a very good idea about where in the time line I am. So yes...far more then you know." the girl remarked.

Duo opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it.

"Not a chance. I'm not saying another word on that. Things are already off track just by all five of you being together and I take it we're in space which puts it even more so off track. I'm not going to mess with it anymore." she said quickly.

Duo opened his mouth again to speak but she wasn't having it. She had already said no and there was going to be no arguing with her on the subject.

"Next question!" she told him flatly.

Duo frowned. He turned a look on his comrades. Trowa actually agreed with her and so did Quatre and Heero. Knowing too much about their future could turn out to be fatal for them.

"I guess I'll ask the next one." Duo remarked.

"Why aren't you mad? You should be furious." he added.

Without saying it, she seemed to realize that he was talking about her father. The girl heaved a sigh, seeming to sink into herself a bit.

"Why should I be?" was her reply.

The looks she got was a mix of incredilious, disbelief, and, what seemed to spark anger in her, pity.

"He shot and killed you! After beating you for years!" Duo replied.

"And?" she replied. Duo snapped a hand to his face, the other staring at her.

"Are you stupid or something?" Duo asked.

"No, I am not. I'm stubborn. You look at me that way because you don't understand." she replied.

"He beat you and killed you! What is there to understand!?" Duo snapped but Quatre laid a hand on his shoulder to quiet him.

"Then explain it to us." Quatre insisted.

"There is no point in getting angry. All it does is make me tired and blind. I have more important things to focus my time and energy on. And if I hold on to past wrongs I will spend the rest of my life, angry, bitter, and hurt. I'm tired of that. Besides, compared to the two alternitives, he did me a favor. I don't believe I could have done the other two." she explained.

"Alternitives?" Quatre didn't like the sound of that.

"There were only two other possible ways for me out of that because, try as I might, I could never get away from him. He found me every time. So I could have either taken the coward's way out and take my own life, or I could have done the equally unthinkable, and kill my father. No matter what he did to me, no matter how bad it got, I would never do either. That would make me a coward and a low life. I am neither." she replied firmly.

Her eyes instantly snapped to Wufie then in a pointed look.

"And no it is not because I am weak. You were raised on certain beliefs and so was I. The main two beliefs I was taught was one, suicide leads to enternal damnation, and two...respect thy father. No matter what he did, he was still my father." she told him.

Wufei, who had opened his mouth to say something, snapped it close.

"I think you're crazy." Duo replied.

"No, not crazy. Just stubborn." she said, letting her head roll to the side to rest on her shoulder.

"Why keep fighting like that?" Heero asked.

Those lovely pale grey eyes landed on him. In one brief moment they said all. How tired she was, how fed up with the life she had been living she had been. But there was also a fire, burning fiercely and bright in the depths of her eyes giving them a fresh, new breath of life.

"Because I can take it." she replied.

"People can say what they want and take their shots at me, but I have always, and will always, be able to take another kick in the teeth."

END

Kyandi: Yhay, a decent length chapter!

Aluri: Told you, you could do it.

Kyandi: I'm proud of myself now!

Aluri: Good then wrap this up and go work on other projects.

Kyandi: Got it. Everyone please review!

Aluri: We'll be back soon.

Kyanid: Bye, bye!


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